


5 times someone realized Deft was a  total player (+1 time someone realized and fell for him anyway)

by Lazare_syn



Category: League of Legends RPF
Genre: 5 Times, Character Study, Everyone Loves Deft, M/M, More Deft ships to come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 12:05:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11714070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazare_syn/pseuds/Lazare_syn
Summary: A chronicle of Deft's many boyfriends throughout his career, from the point of view of various onlookers.





	1. 1. Dandy

“Seungbin is missing again,” Coach announced as Inkyu walking into the practice room. “And our scrim starts in 10 minutes.”

Inkyu groaned, annoyed but not surprised. Seungbin had never been the most punctual person to begin with, but lately he’d been even more flighty and unreliable than usual.

Inkyu looked around the room. Sehyoung was slouched over in his chair, looking bored. Hyeongseok sat quietly in the corner, scrolling through his phone. Wonseok was opening the League client on his computer, humming a song by some idol group that most of the team had recently become obsessed with. Coach stood next to the doorway with his arms crossed, looking tired. The other side of the room was devoid of any people.

“Forget Seungbin, where’s Blue?” Inkyu asked. “Aren’t they supposed to spectate our match?”

Hyeongseok looked up from his phone.

“Heart just texted that they’d be a couple minutes late. Apparently Hyukkyu is feeling a little sick.”

“Oh, I hope he’s okay,” Wonseok said concernedly.

Coach sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Inkyu, go get Seungbin and Blue from wherever they are. If Hyukkyu really is sick, he doesn’t have to come.”

“Yes Coach,” said Inkyu reluctantly.

He found Hyukkyu hunched over in one of the bathrooms, being petted and cuddled by Seungbin and while his teammates comforted and cooed at him from a relatively respectable distance. He looked awful.

Inkyu cleared his throat awkwardly. He was mostly ignored except by Hyukkyu, whose eyes snapped to him.

“Oh, Inkyu…” he said weakly. Everyone else turned, finally noticing him. Seungbin looked up at him reluctantly from his position draped all over Hyukkyu.

“We have a scrim in 10 minutes,” he said, turning his gaze onto a pouting Seungbin. “Stop bothering Hyukkyu and let’s go before Coach yells at us again.”

“We’re not bothering him, we’re helping him during his time of need!” said Dayoon, who was clutching a pastel get-well card.

“Hyukkyu needs us here to nurse him through his illness,” Gwanhyung said, brandishing the glass of water and the bottle of cold medicine in his hands as if to prove his point. Next to him, Cheonju, who was holding a hot water bottle in one arm and an alpaca plushie in another, nodded sagely.

“I think what Hyukkyu needs is to be left alone so he can get some rest,” Inkyu said drily. “By the way, Coach said you don’t have come to watch our scrim if you feel sick, Hyukkyu.”

“Okay” Hyukkyu, obviously relieved. He gently pushed Seungbin off of him (much to the latter’s vocal displeasure), and staggered off to his room. As he passed by Inkyu, he muttered a quiet “Thanks.”

Eojin stood up from where he was crouched in the corner of the bathroom. “Okay, let’s go then.”

“Wait!” Dayoon exclaimed. “Hyukkyu forgot to take the stuff we brought for him!” He rushed off after Hyukkyu, followed closely by Gwanhyung and Cheonju. Seungbin was gone as well.

Next to Inkyu, Eojin sighed and covered his face with his palm.

Once they finally managed to corral 3/5 of Samsung Blue and Seungbin, they headed back to the practice room. As they walked, they talked incessantly about how Hyukkyu was doing and how they hoped he wasn’t getting lonely. Seungbin loudly proclaimed at one point that Hyukkyu needed the “siren’s touch” (presumably meaning himself) to help him sleep. From the look on Hyukkyu’s face when Inkyu had arrived, the opposite seemed to be true.

Under his surface irritation at having to deal with his teammates’ shenanigans, a small part of Inkyu kept thinking back to the moment where he saw Seungbin, Gwanhyung, Cheonju, Dayoon, and even Eojin huddled over Hyukkyu. The concern and care in their eyes had been very real, even if they had gone about expressing it somewhat poorly. Inkyu and Hyukkyu rarely hung out together, and from their few interactions Hyukkyu seemed like little more than a shy teenager who cried at the drop of a hat and really like playing Ezreal.

“What the hell do they all see in that guy?” he wondered. Then, somewhat bitterly, “Why don’t they care about me like that when I get sick?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I miss Samsung Blue and White.


	2. 2. Faker

Sanghyeok looked up at the stage, where Samsung Blue and KT Arrows had just finished playing, with Blue coming out with the win. SKT was supposed have a practice day, but since there was an issue with the computers in the gaming house Coach had dragged them out to watch some matches. Next to him, Jaewan yawned and stretched his arms.

On the stage, Byungkwon removed his headphones, exchanged a few words with his coach and teammates, and bounded over to the other side, where Samsung Blue milled around, content with their victory. He snuck behind Hyukkyu and slung an arm around his shoulders, causing the AD Carry to start in surprise. 

The casters were still talking, going over the various plays and misplays that had taken place over the course of the match, but for once Sanghyeok ignored them. Byungkwon stood there chatting with Hyukkyu and Cheonju, flashing his trademark smile the entire time. As the conversation went on, his arm slowly dropped from Hyukkyu’s shoulders to his waist. From the increase in volume from the crowd, this did not go unnoticed by most people.

Byungkwon was leaning in to say something to Hyukkyu (that apparently required his lips to brush Hyukkyu’s earlobes) when Jihoon tapped him on the shoulder.

“We’re going to meet with the teams backstage,” he said. “Me and some of the others want to catch up with Samsung Blue. Want to come with us?”

Sanghyeok turned away from the stage, suddenly aware that he had been staring at Byungkwon and Hyukkyu for a bit too long. Jihoon was looking at him knowingly, which for some reason caused a spark of irritation to rise in Sanghyeok’s gut. He quickly dismissed the feeling.

With a silent nod, Sanghyeok followed his team backstage.

By the time they reached Samsung Blue’s waiting room, the team had already arrived. Hyukkyu stood in the middle of the room, playing on his phone while Gwanhyung and Cheonju talked strategy next to him. In a corner, Eojin was fluffing his coat for some reason. He and Sanghyeok made eye contact, and they nodded at each other, one mid laner to another. Dayoon was nowhere to be seen.

Gyeonghwan, who had followed them here, quickly wandered off in search of coffee, while Junsik and Jihoon immediately went up to Hyukkyu and started talking to him. Hyukkyu looked happy to see them, if not a bit overwhelmed by most of SKT piling into their dressing room.

For a moment, Sanghyeok just stood there. He thought about striking up a conversation with Eojin, but dismissed the thought when he noticed Jaewan approaching him. He wasn’t close enough with either Gwanhyung or Cheonju to feel good about interrupting their conversation, and he didn’t feel like hunting down Dayoon, whom he didn’t know too well either. Left without much of a choice, he continued to observe Hyukkyu and his interaction with Junsik and Jihoon.

Hyukkyu was interesting to Sanghyeok. Not just because he was a talented player, but because it always felt it they should know each other better than they actually did. They were two prop players had gone to the same high school, yet Sanghyeok could not remember then exchanging more than five words with him, and he still had a poor grasp on Hyukkyu’s personality beyond ‘quiet’ and ‘passionate about League of Legends’ (neither of them bad traits by any means in Sanghyeok’s book, but…). 

Hyukkyu was like a ghost, always in the periphery of his vision, yet never making as deep of an impression as someone tangible would. And yet, because of his constant presence, he was impossible to completely ignore.

From the way so many people seemed eager to interact with him, this was true for other people as well, but to a much greater extent.

“Everywhere he goes, the boys seem to flock to him, hm?” Gwanjin commented, suddenly appearing behind Sanghyeok. “I wonder why that is?”

“He’s pretty cute, isn’t he?” Eonyeong mused, also appearing behind Sanghyeok. Next to him, Seongung murmured in agreement. Gwanjin tossed his head in mock irritation.

“Well, there’s plenty of cute people in esports. Like me, for example,” he said while gesturing at himself dramatically. “Why don’t all the boys flock to me too?”

“Probably your terrible personality,” Eonyeong teased, eliciting a sputter of denial from Gwanjin and a snicker from Seongung.

“He looks like an alpaca,” Sanghyeok said. Gwanjin, Eonyeong, and Seongung looked towards him in confusion, before it dawned on them who he meant.

”Yeah, we saw that comment by Montecristo too,” said Gwanjin. He perked up, like an exciting thought had just occurred to him. “Do you think he appreciates all the alpaca plushies the fans sent him after that? Apparently they had to stack them all in a separate room.”

“Ah, I wish I got so many plushies from the fans,” said Seongung, prompting a new conversation about the best and worst fan gifts everyone had gotten.

Sanghyeok tuned them out (fan gifts were nice and he appreciated every one he got, but he never really put much thought into anticipating or ranking them) and looked back at Hyukkyu, Junsik, and Jihoon. By this point, Jaewan had joined them, and the four of them were all chatting happily. Like Byungkwon before him, Jihoon has his arms around Hyukkyu, casually resting his head on his shoulder while Junsik held one of Hyukkyu’s hands. Jaewan was standing closer to Hyukkyu than he usually did when talking to people, and his gestures while he spoke where more over-the-top than usual. Hyukkyu didn’t seem perturbed by all this physical contact and contact.

They were all looking at Hyukkyu so...tenderly.

Sanghyeok tilted his head to the side. A realization of something began to stir inside him.

“Sanghyeok? Are you feeling alright?” he faintly heard in his periphery. It was the familiar voice of his coach. For a moment, he wanted to ignore him, the way he had with the casters and his teammates, and chase that feeling of discovery. To finally decode the mystery box that was Kim Hyukkyu, who was so close yet so far away.

He broke his gaze from the happy quartet. “I’m fine,” he replied quietly. Jeongyun smiled at him, relieved. 

“The computers have been fixed. Let’s go back.”

“Okay,” said Sanghyeok.

Three hours later, he was three items deep in a new build and had forgotten all about anything but the game.


End file.
